Sorrento is a beautiful town perched on a cliff high above the sea with views of Vesuvius and the islands in the Bay of Naples . Use this website to help you plan a visit to this elegant southern Italian resort and find your way to the best beaches and some lovely villages and towns along the Sorrentine peninsula that are perhaps less well known to tourists.

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Friday, April 11, 2014

Take home a decorative souvenir of Sorrento

If you would like a beautiful memento of your holiday in Sorrento, why not treat yourself to an article made from inlaid wood.

Intarsia, the craft of inlaying a decorative, design in wood, is an ancient Sorrentine tradition. You will see wonderful old examples of this type of marquetry work illustrating religious subjects inside Sorrento’s Duomo in Corso Italia.

If you wander along Via San Cesareo, the ancient street that runs parallel with the Corso, you will see shops selling pictures, boxes and small tables decorated with inlaid wood that have been hand-made by artisans in Sorrento.

A shop specialising in objects made from inlaid wood.

Turn down one of the side streets that go off Via San Cesareo at right angles and you will see the artisans at work creating these items in full view through the open doors of their workshops.

In nearby Via San Nicola you can visit il Museobottega della Tarsialignea and see precious early examples of the craft and pieces of furniture and pictures from the 18th and 19th centuries, when these items were sought after by the rich and famous people who visited Sorrento on the Grand Tour.

The museum is housed in an 18th century palace, where courses and events for people wishing to learn the craft take place. The palace also has an exhibition of paintings, prints and photographs by artists from Sorrento and abroad depicting the coastline and scenery around the resort over the centuries.

The museum is open Monday to Saturday from 9.30 to 13.00 and 16.00 to 20.00 between April and October. It closes an hour earlier during the winter.

HOTELS

Search Best of Sorrento

SORRENTO GUIDE BOOK

A good guide book for visitors to Sorrento is Frommer's Amalfi Coast, which has a whole chapter devoted to the town and its peninsula, including information on lesser known attractions of the area that other guide books sometimes ignore.

This book takes readers on a tour of the Sorrentine Peninsula, starting from Castellamare di Stabia, with details of other places on the peninsula such as Vico Equense, Massa Lubrense, Sant’Agata su due Golfi, Nerano and Termini.

ITALY ON THIS DAY

CRIME NOVEL SET IN ITALY

DEATH IN THE HIGH CITY

A cosy crime novel set in Lombardy in northern Italy, Death in the High City is believed to be the first British crime novel to use Bergamo as its location.

The book is the first in a series of Butler and Bartorelli Mysteries, featuring detective duo Kate Butler, a journalist, and Steve Bartorelli, a retired Detective Chief Inspector.

Death in the High City centres on the investigation into the death of an English woman who had been staying in the beautiful Città Alta while writing a biography of the Bergamo-born composer Gaetano Donizetti.

Death in the High City is available from Amazon in paperback and as an e-book.

WEATHER IN SORRENTO

Where is Sorrento ?

Sorrento is an historic coastal city in Italy’s Campania region, situated 50km to the south of Naples . It is served by the international airport at Naples and can be reached by rail, road or boat. Sorrento is a good base for visiting the islands of Capri, Ischia and Procida, the Amalfi coast or the Roman ruins at Pompei and Ercolano.

VISIT OUR SISTER SITES

If your love of Italy stretches beyond Sorrento and the south, you may enjoy visiting our sister sites, devoted to the elegant and historic northern Italian cities of Bergamo and Padova.

Situated just north of Milan and close to the lakes and mountains, Bergamo has become a familiar name because of its major international airport but is an attractive place to visit in its own right, combining contemporary sophistication with medieval charm.

Padova, an elegant city in the Veneto less than half an hour by express rail services from Venice, boasts a picturesque historic centre, one of the world's oldest universities and notable buildings including the Scrovegni Chapel, which houses a renowned cycle of frescoes by Giotto that is recognised as a masterpiece of western art.